Portfolio 1: Whose your Mama?

I perceive Mary as both heavenly and humble. We dub her the Queen of Heaven while she was a peasant. In the statue in the quad, she has a regal cloak on, with humble robes on underneath. The star patterns signify a heavenliness, and yet her eyes are still vacant and downcasted. We see Mary as our protecting mother. Mostly, I think, society views Mary as a model of obedience and faith and trust in God.

In order to make the statements she did about the powerful, Mary had to be strong and rebelious. As we know already, Mary and Joseph were poor. Also, from previous knowledge, I know that women had no rights. In order to make such a powerful statement being of those two backgrounds meant going beyond society’s limits for her. Being so key to God’s plan, Mary was probably also driven by faith or even by the Holy Spirit. Mary also demonstrated faith and strength in accepting the pregnancy because of the expected community reaction. Being pregnant and unmarried was punished by death, and so again, Mary had to trust in God to provide for her.


God may have chosen a woman like Mary for many reasons. It may be that she was, as we are taught, without sin. But then again we are taught that Mary was born without sin, unlike anyone else. This means that Mary would have been chosen before she was concieved. So if that were true, then God guided her and shaped her throughout her life to be the way he wanted. I would like to not think this is the case. Instead I think that God chose Mary because she was a normal woman. She was poor, like so many others and so she and Jesus could identify with their struggles. She had a strong faith in Him, and yet so did so many other women did at the same time. I think the main reason that Mary was chosen was that she understood God. In the Magnificat, Mary proclaims all these things that God does and will do. This may be as a result of God's guidance, but regardless, Mary was chosen to birth Jesus and we trust in God for his decision.